The Texas State Plan for the Education of Gifted and Talented students specifically outlines requirements for an “Accountable” or “Exemplary” gifted and talented programs. This evaluation tool, designed by the TAGT Leadership Resource Committee, will assist districts and campuses in auditing their program against the state plan requirements.
There are two evaluation tools, one directed at the district level and one at the campus level. Overlaps occur between the two documents as the district and individual campuses work together as a team in the formation of a successful gifted and talented program. Suggested stakeholders to include in the evaluation of a district’s gifted and talented program should ideally include district gifted and talented leaders, campus administrators, gifted and talented classroom teachers, parents, and secondary gifted and talented students. Included in the design of these tools are specific categories for evaluation with point value totals for each category, as well as a chart for calculating totals. At the bottom, there is a list of resources to consider for gathering data; this is not an exhaustive list.
The purpose of State Plan Evaluation Summary Tool (Excel sheet) is to bring all the data from the Campus Level State Plan Assessment and the District Level State Plan Assessment together in one location. While completing your Campus and District Level Assessments, you will begin transferring your “yes” and “no” data to the Combined Evaluations Tab of this spreadsheet. If you have additional campuses, you can either add campus columns or duplicate the combined evaluations spreadsheet tab. It may be necessary to add cells or columns in order to get your data all on specific tabs. After this, you will need to fill out the information on the other two tabs.
By conducting a program audit, the categories requiring refinement can be narrowed and targeted for specific improvement at both the campus and the district level. This can help campuses and districts plan for accountable or exemplary G/T programs in the future.
TAGT Leadership Committee:
Janet Helmcamp
Director of Assessment and GT
Cleburne ISD, Cleburne Texas
Kristin Majority
Secondary GT Frisco ISD
Ph.D. Candidate University of North Texas
This is Janet Helmcamp’s 30th year in education. She has been a second grade teacher, GT teacher, Assistant Principal for elementary and secondary and, for the last 5 years, Director of Assessment, Advanced Academics and GT. All of her experience except for 2 years is with Cleburne ISD. Her goal is to foster growth and promote leadership in students and teachers.
Kristin Majority M.Ed. has been in gifted education for nearly 20 years as a teacher and gifted specialist. She completed her Master of Education, specializing in gifted studies, from SMU and will complete her Ph.D. in Gifted and Talented education this fall.
